The Daily Background

Barack Obama: Not so good with the Español…

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Read into these figures what you will….

[T]his electorate is very white; only four in ten have a “college degree.” They’re “less affluent” than Dems in other states. The percentage of late deciders is declining: only 27% made up their minds within the last seven days.
– Issue number one is, of course, the economy, followed by […]

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There are two primary contests today: one in Wisconsin and another in Hawaii. Here are the details for each.
Wisconsin Primary (74 pledged delegates)– Polls close at 9PM, EST (8PM local). Open primary. Obama has the advantage in post Super Tuesday polling in the state, with an average lead of about seven points. Still, Clinton’s campaign […]

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The ailing 81 year old announced shortly after midnight he was officially stepping down…
Raul Castro, who had “temporarily” been acting as the state’s president for 19 months now due to Fidel’s poor health, is expected to take over…

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Hillary Clinton, December 30th, 2007:

CLINTON: I have a campaign that is poised and ready for the long term. We are competing everywhere through February 5th… So I’m in it for the long run. It’s not a very long run. It’ll be over by February 5th.

Clinton’s spokesman Jay Carson after a disappointing result on February 5th, […]

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What is perhaps the first Polk awarded to a blogger is well deserved:

Joshua M. Marshall, editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, who wins The Polk Award for Legal Reporting.
“His site, www.talkingpointsmemo.com, led the news media coverage of the politically motivated dismissals of United States attorneys across the country. Noting a similarity between firings in […]

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This clip from Face The Nation, 2/17/07 is a must watch for those of us thinking about the end game.
CBS’ Bob Schieffer asks Clinton surrogate Antonio Villaraigosa (a Clinton surrogate) if he thinks this nomination will carry into the convention (he says yes and manages to spin it as an “aw shucks” type of thing).
Schieffer […]

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Here’s the spin coming out of one of Clinton’s highest profile Hispanic supporters:

On the morning after Clinton’s victory [in New Hampshire], I talked to Sergio Bendixen, one of her pollsters, who specializes in the Hispanic vote.
[…]
When I asked Bendixen about the source of Clinton’s strength in the Hispanic community, he mentioned her support for health […]

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I just talked with a Serbian friend about the current situation between Kosovo and Serbia (basically, against the wishes of Serbia, Kosovo has declared its independence). His feelings towards the matter were mixed, as I suspect many Serbians are.
On the one hand, he doesn’t want Kosovo to secede because of the economic benefits to having […]

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Um, what?. Words fail me.

[T]he former president spoke as if he were back in the grass-roots insurgency that he and his wife brought to the presidential campaign trail in 1992. “We’ve gotten plenty of delegates on a shoestring,” he said recently. He didn’t mention that his wife’s campaign has raised and burned through more than […]

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Earlier, I asked if Hillary was telling the truth about how common it was not to have a nominee before the convention. She said to reporters that, for instance, her husband hadn’t wrapped up the nomination until June of 1992:

“You know, I know that some of you [reporters] have only covered the ‘04 and the […]

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After the Virginia Tech tragedy occurred, I opined:

How about a law that says if a gun dealer sells five weapons to murders who use those guns to kill people, then they’re not allowed to sell any more guns? Call it the “five-strikes-and-you’re-out rule.” A gun dealer that Cho bought a glock and 50 bullets from […]

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Apparently Charles Barkley is… awesome.

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New criticism of Obama supporters: They’re like members of a cult.

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Clinton’s new spin is that it’s not all that unusual for Democrats not to have a presumptive nominee until June. She claims:

“I campaigned with my husband until he wrapped up the nomination in June [1992],” she said. “I thought it was fun we had a good time. I’m prepared to go the distance.”

Is this historically […]

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